FROM THE LEFT: Alvaro Palacios ‘Camins del Priorat’ Priorat, Catalonia 2019 - Bodegas LAN Gran Reserva Rioja 2011 - Envínate ‘Benje’ Tinto Red, Tenerife, Canary Islands 2019.
Wine #1: I tasted these wines in a different order from the picture on the right. I started with the Envínate ‘Benje’ Tinto Red 2019 from Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. I was excited to try this high elevation, terroir-driven red from volcanic island soils. It is mostly the grape Listan Prieto (also known as Mission or País) blended with a bit of Tintilla. Unfortunately, this wine reeked of brettanomyces, a spoilage yeast which at certain proportions renders the wine practically undrinkable. There are small amounts of brett in the famous syrah wines from Cornas in the Northern Rhône and it is a highly acceptable characteristic. I’d even said it’s quintessential and preferred. With Cornas, brett adds muscle and complexity. With this wine, it was the opposite. The barnyard funk was extremely powerful.
On the palate, I could pick up some savory red currant and cranberry, but not much else. This wine would be a hit with natty wine drinkers paired with some snobbish conversation, fermented pickles and weird cheese.
Wine #2: Next up was Alvaro Palacios. He was born into a famous Rioja winemaking family of 9 siblings. He studied enology and worked for Château Pétrus in Bordeaux, France. He came back to his home country but was intrigued by the old vineyards of Priorat. This one was a blend of 35% garnacha, 24% syrah, 17% cabernet sauvignon, 11% cariñena, 10% merlot and 3% other varieties. It is a 2019 vintage, so it did need a bit of air. After sitting in the glass for about ten minutes, the wine started to express a lot of aroma on both the nose and the palate. Pretty notes of grilled black plum, violets and jammy purple fruits shined with a nice backbone of tar and leather. There were some grippy tannins and a good amount of acidity, which makes me think this wine could age beautifully for 5-7 years.
Wine #3: I am on the hunt for all types of different Rioja as I continue to study for my Stage 2 Masters of Wine practical exam coming up. Rioja is something I’ll get right immediately or totally screw up. Part of that has to do with the Rioja DOCa allowing a plethora of grape varieties in various percentages to exist in the blends. Tempranillo is always the primary grape and it can even be a 100% varietal bottling legally. But usually there is a proportion of garnacha, as well as graciano, mazuelo (same grape as cariñena aka carignan) and the lesser known maturana tinta (genetically identical to the grape trousseau from Jura, France but classified as a distinct Spanish variety). I rarely see the last grape mentioned in blends… I only know about it from Rioja’s consejo regulador website. The other issue with Rioja is that it can be a generic non-aged bottling, it can be crianza, reserva or gran reserva aging levels and it can be aged in new and/or used barrels which are usually American, French or a blend of both. All of these factors make blinding Rioja extremely difficult! This wine had 94% tempranillo with 6% mazuelo. The mazuelo gave a lot of color and purple-fruited power. The blend of American and French oak gave toasty, herbal (kind of dill-like) aromas, with vanilla and some honeycomb as it opened up. The tertiary aging aromas were delicate, but there. Mostly almond and briny olives were present. This 2011 bottling could probably successfully age another 8 years or so, but is drinking well now.